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The Decline of the Coffee Giant

Today, all Starbucks stores closed early to provide training for their “baristas.” Nationwide, the specialty coffee sales leader began closing it’s door at 5:30 PM, leaving those looking for a bad cup of coffee or for a super sweet drink that has a coffee aftertaste high and dry or more importantly, maybe they left the door open for smaller shops to show the uninformed just how bad Starbucks coffee really is.

This news today reminded me of other recent news from Starbucks, namely that Starbucks will be closing stores that are not well performing, they will also be cutting back on the number of planned new stores and that they will be laying off 220 employees. Has Starbucks hit the saturation point of how much coffee the country can consume? Are they victims of their success? Have they grown too much too fast?

I am biased against Starbucks coffee. I think it is bad coffee, but more than that, it is far too expensive for how bad it is. From the first time I tried their coffee all those years ago when they first arrived in southern California, I did not like them. The main reason for not liking them was that their coffee was bad but there was also an emotional reason. There was a small coffee shop in Pasadena that we used to frequent called “BrewHaHa” that was shut down after Starbucks came into town.

This lead me to think about what made one coffee shop successful and the other not, and it’s not the coffee, it’s the image. One of the troubling things about our society is it’s consumerism. So the success that Starbucks has seen is more due to their white cup with green logo than whats in the cup. Much like the symbols of society and how they are marketed as a symbol of status the coffee cup is now part of the same marketing and consumerism. When Honda, Toyota and Nissan introduced their new car lines, Acura, Lexus and Infiniti, it was because people would not consider driving a luxury vehicle with a Honda, Toyota or Nissan badge. Luxury vehicles have a Cadillac or Mercedes Benz or BMW badge. Coffee was given a label and sold to the unsuspecting coffee drinker who has been hoodwinked into thinking that he is getting a “luxury” item.

Coffee is a perishable commodity either in a green un-roasted form as well as roasted and ground forms. Once roasted, the coffee begins to loose much of its flavor not long after roasting. Most roasted coffee can be considered fresh for up to two weeks after roasting, after that it begins to go stale. Starbucks coffee is roasted in one of several roasting locations and shipped to local stores. I do not know what the transit time is between the time the coffee is roasted and when it is shipped to stores nor do I know how long it is before it is ground and served. What I do know is that the coffee is over roasted, the water used to brew it is too hot and since the coffee tastes so bad most people only see fit to drink it as long as it has plenty of cream and sweeteners.

With the closing of all the Starbucks stores, I hope that the coffee addicts looked for a new place to get their fix. Hopefully every neighborhood has a local coffee shop that roasts their coffee on the premises, if not then hopefully they found a shop that keeps fresh roasted coffee and they found a cup of coffee that has a clean finish and coffee that isn’t bitter but has plenty of flavor, a cup of coffee that is so good it doesn’t need all that cream and sugar to cover up how bad it isn’t.

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7 Responses

We have three Starbucks in our little city, with a fourth one soon to open near the MSU campus. I never go there for coffee. We have a couple Caribou Coffee shops, which is pretty good coffee, but I discovered Dunn Brothers a couple years ago. Freshly roasted every day right there in the shop. It smells fantastic, and tastes even better! Some coffee starts out good, but seems flat by the time you get done with it, but the best Dunn Bros leaves you with a flash of sweetness at the end, and you have to have more!

Of course, Dunn Bros has their share of people who have to have their lattes and cappuccinos, their “candy coffee” as we derisively call it. But my co-worker and I drink it black, full city, the way God always intended coffee to be drunk!

I think Dunn Bros is regional, just here in the north central states. If you ever get up this way, give them a try!

For the most part, I do not mind cappuccinos or lattés, its the crazy caramel mochaccinno ice blended drinks that are over the top. There are few things in life better than fresh roasted coffee from a french press, black, the way God intended.

So trueeeeee I hate Starbucks, actually I hate american coffee no offense, you guys do not know how to make good coffee, you as in americans in general, you drink watered down coffee…I actually didn’t mind the Capuccinos they served at Starbucks last time I had one, I didn’t pay for them so it didn’t hurt that bad but its just not real coffee.
When we were in Atlanta could you believe we did not find one stove top coffee maker in all the stores we went to? Neither did we find one in Miami. Because what is generally used is that darned coffee maker, the only coffee i actually loved brewed in one of those things was my Godmother’s (she’s been my godmother for 22 years now :P no point in me calling her aunt because I’m a Christian now, she knows I’m a Christian) choice of coffee, she used our very own Santo Domingo while I was there and this very yummy flavored coffee called Barney’s Santa’s White Christmas, delish!
I really don’t drink coffee on a daily nor weekly basis but I do enjoy a cup of coffee here and there, just love the taste. But y’all should definitely try our coffee!